“We will rescue Ronan and his men.”
“I ken ye’ll try.” Brother and sister stood together in silence until one of Kieran’s sailors called out that Skye was in sight. Abigail sniffled and wiped her face. “What will ye do?”
“I’m putting ye on Kyle’s boat. I dinna like it, but ye’re the only one who kens the tunnels. Ye’ll take him and two boats into the sea cave. Guide him through the tunnels to the dungeon. Dinna go in until Ronan is free. I dinna want ye in the middle of the fighting, Abigail. Promise me. If Ronan kens ye’re there, it’ll distract him. Promise.”
“I canna do that, Kieran. If I can do aught to help Ronan, I will. I willna watch ma husband die.”
Kieran sighed. He knew his own wife would argue the same thing. He wouldn’t force his sister. “While ye lead the men through the tunnels, I’ll go to the main gate. I dinna trust Cormag or Gordon to release Ronan in exchange for the flag. But they will have to listen if I have their clan’s most prized possession in ma possession. I’ll demand they release the prisoners in the storage building before I consider giving the flag back.”
“They outnumber us, Kieran. What if they simply overrun ye and yer men?”
“As long as I’m alive, I can unfurl the flag. They willna do aught that might make me do that. I’ll shred the bluidy thing before their eyes. When I ken ye and Ronan are safe, I’ll give the filthy scrap back to them and be on ma way.”
“If ye dinna demand our release until Ronan and I make it out of the cave, Cormag and Gordon will ken something is off. They’ll wonder why ye would return the flag without seeing them free Ronan and me.”
“Once ye’re free, it willna matter. They can have their fairytale and their Fairy Flag. It matters nae to me as long as ye’re safe.”
“They’ll see us approach. Can ye buy us enough time to get the men from the dungeon before they force ye to fight?”
“Aye. They’ll think they have the upper hand. They willna ken ye made it to us. I’ll say I havenae heard from ye, and I dinna trust them nae to be involved with ye missing. Once they see the flag, they willna attack, but they will make threats. If I can keep them talking and at least release the men in the bailey, then we might get away with little bloodshed.”
Abigail nodded; she was doubtful but willing to trust her brother. Kieran signaled to Kyle, who had his men steer his birlinn alongside Kieran’s. He lifted Abigail onto his second’s boat and said a silent prayer that his baby sister come out of the ensuing fight alive. He didn’t doubt there would be bloodshed. He just hoped the rescue mission succeeded before the larger Skye forces overpowered the Lewis men.
Ten Lewis birlinns cut through the water as Dunvegan loomed on the cliffs above them. Without a word or a signal, three drifted toward the sea gate. Kyle jumped to the rocks and nimbly wound his way to the sea gate. Using the key Kieran had passed along to him, he opened the portal. By the time the three birlinns sailed into the cave, guards were already running into the cave. Abigail remained on the boat until only the men from Lewis stood. Abigail suggested Kyle try the key in the door she believed led to the dungeon, but it didn’t fit. In silence and without torches, Abigail led the men into the bowels of the keep, winding their way to the dungeon. Chaos met them when she pushed the secret door open.
Twenty-Nine
“Your bride won’t be so bonnie once—I suppose I should say if—her body bobs back up to the surface.” Gordon taunted Ronan as the cell door swung open. “Have you ever seen a body after it’s drowned? How bloated it becomes? How the skin turns gray? How the eyes bulge?”
Ronan watched Gordon, remaining silent. But his heart raced. He didn’t understand why Gordon suggested Abigail had drowned. Had they killed his wife?
“Och, not a word to say? If only your bride were so wise.” Gordon waited for Ronan to respond, but they only stared at one another in silence. “I must commend her on her bravery, even if it was equally stupid. Stole a birlinn and sailed north. Got herself lost at sea.”
Ronan raised an eyebrow, but he still didn’t speak. Gordon was giving him information without asking, so Ronan would allow Gordon to continue.
“Do you ken how grateful she was when I found her? Do you remember how her mouth felt wrapped around your cock? I always will. But then again, once you’re dead, she’ll be my wife.”
Ronan eased his way to his feet, his arms still appearing to be tied behind his back. He glanced over Gordon’s shoulder to the men waiting outside his cell. Ronan considered what Gordon said. Abigail couldn’t be both alive and dead. Gordon couldn’t keep his lies straight. Ronan didn’t believe for a moment that Abigail touched Gordon, but he did believe that she’d set sail for Stornoway. He knew Kieran taught her to sail and that she enjoyed it. Ronan had promised to give her a birlinn when they arrived at Dun Ringill. They’d lay together in bed, their fingers entwined, as Abigail told him stories about how she’d been the one to bait Kieran’s fishing hooks when they were younger. She made him swear never to tell that Kieran went a little green every time he had to touch a worm.
“Naught to say aboot your wife sucking my cock until my eyes practically rolled back in my head?”
“I ken my wife would have bitten it off before doing aught else. I ken you’re lying,” Ronan replied calmly.
“Then you underestimate how badly your wife wants to live, how she’ll do aught to keep you alive. She may have cried out your name, but it was my cock she begged for as I made her climax. I don’t care whose name she called. It’s my seed inside her quim right now. If she lives, she might give birth to a son in nine moons. We won’t ken until then whose bairn it is. It might be a MacLeod sitting in the laird’s chair at Dun Ringill.” Gordon watched Ronan, who didn’t flinch. Ronan still didn’t believe Gordon. His assertion was too preposterous to consider. “Mayhap I didn’t make it clear. She cried out your name, kenning you couldn’t come to her rescue. She begged my cock to stop splitting her in half. I loved every moment of her tears, of her screaming for help while my men watched.”
Ronan’s nostrils flared, but he still wouldn’t take Gordon’s bait. He was more apt to believe Abigail was already at Stornoway, seeking Kieran’s help, than recovering from Gordon’s attack. The man’s expression and tone didn’t match the violence he described. There wasn’t pride or boasting in it. There wasn’t malice or joy when he described how he supposedly defiled Abigail. Movement behind Gordon caught Ronan’s attention. The sound of one of the other cells opening was the only cue Ronan needed. His men had assured him just that morning that they were hale. They’d abandoned whistles days earlier and called out to one another.
With a roar that shook the walls, Ronan launched himself at Gordon. He knocked the man to the ground, his hand wrapped around his captor’s throat. He reached behind him and pulled thesgian dubhfrom the small of his back. Gordon struggled to break free, writhing and thrashing beneath Ronan. Gordon underestimated the strength Ronan would find when the opportunity to escape finally came. He also underestimated the strength hatred gave Ronan.
“I dinna believe ye raped ma wife any more than I believe she is dead, like ye said at the beginning of yer lies. But I watched ye touch her in that boat. I can imagine the hell ye’ve made her life. Ye took her from me, and now I will take yer life from ye.” Ronan slashed thesgian dubhacross Gordon’s throat. While the blade was short and narrow, it was one of the sharpest styles of dirks. Gordon gasped, blood gurgling at his throat. Ronan watched the life fade from Gordon’s eyes before he rushed out of his cell. Three of his men fought the three remaining guards. His war cry signaled the men to overpower the guards when they opened their cell. Just like Ronan, some of his warriors had hidden their blades well before their captors searched them. One MacLeod guard already lay dead while the fight continued, three against three.
Ronan went back in his cell, taking Gordon’s sword from its sheath. “Bluidy, fucking bastard. Wearing ma own sword.” Ronan wrapped both hands around the hilt and drove the sword into Gordon’s chest. “Shouldnae have taken what’s mine. Ma wife or ma sword.”
Ronan joined his men as the last guard fell. The MacKinnons took swords from the fallen MacLeods just as the door from the bailey burst open. More MacLeods streamed into the dungeon.
“Kill them before the Lewis get to them,” one guard cried.
Lewis? Kieran’s here? Dear God, did Abby really sail to Stornoway on her own?
